


Mittens.

by acciostillinski



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky Barnes is a cat person look me in the eyes and tell me he isn't, Gen, M/M, i should be revising
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-08
Updated: 2014-05-08
Packaged: 2018-01-24 01:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1586768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acciostillinski/pseuds/acciostillinski
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony had confirmed this and gone on to mention that “Captain America and his Russian boyfriend adopted a kitten earlier today and have named it Mittens”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mittens.

**Author's Note:**

> hi yes hello
> 
> i almost started crying because i pictured bucky with a kitten so this happened instead of me revising for my exams

If there was anything Steve had forgotten about Bucky, it was that he’d always been a cat person. Growing up, if Bucky wasn’t looking down allies to see if Steve had managed to get himself cornered again, he was looking down them for stray kittens.

He’d never known why. Steve had always been a dog person, but whenever they’d walk down the street and Bucky saw a cat, he’d instantly be crouched down trying to get its attention. They could be on the busiest street, in the middle of the afternoon and Bucky would care more about the cat than anything else.

The only reason Steve had remembered this, was because somehow, they’d ended up in a pet store. It was tiny, it could barely fit the two of them and the young girl who was sat quietly behind the counter. Steve had been too distracted by the husky pup in the corner of the store, relishing in the fact he didn’t break out in hives the moment he was in a meter radius of a dog anymore when he heard Bucky talking behind him.

At first, Steve was sure he was muttering to himself until he turned around as saw him stroking a tabby kitten from litter, the rest cowering away from him. Steve walked over, watching as the kitten nudged against Bucky’s non-metal hand in a bid for attention. “They’re scared of me” Bucky muttered.

“That guy isn’t” Steve pointed out, the tabby was still nudging Bucky’s hand until Bucky carried on scratching its ears. Steve watched him, he was smiling. Like, really smiling as the kitten licked him and looked at him with big, adorable green eyes.

That was the first time he’d seen Bucky smile like that in a long time.

 

* * *

 

 

They didn’t even know Tony knew when he decided to tell the entire world in some stupid TV interview. The interviewer had mentioned that most of the Avengers were residing at Stark Tower after recent events. Tony had confirmed this and gone on to mention that “Captain America and his Russian boyfriend adopted a kitten earlier today and have named it Mittens”

Steve and Bucky caught up with him when he arrived back at Stark tower, “You do realise I’m not actually Russian?” Bucky asked.

“And Mittens, Tony, really?” Steve carried on. He and Bucky had been arguing over names since they’d brought the kitten home, Tony just gave them a proud smile.

“The whole world knows, it has to be Mittens! Mittens the Avenging Kitten” Tony insisted. Steve rolled his eyes at the immaturity before hearing a quiet ‘I like it’ from Bucky.

Later that night, they got a package at their door. A silver collar, with ‘Mittens the Avenging Kitten’ engraved in a red star pendant.

“Tony realises he’ll have to change that to ‘Avenging Cat’ in a few months’ time, right?” Bucky pointed out.

* * *

 

 

Steve was terrified he was being replaced by a cat. For the first few days Mittens wouldn’t go near him, it would just follow Bucky around the floor wherever he went. Every time Steve would try to interact with him in any way he would just run off and hide under the sofa.

Being extra strong had its perks. One perk was definitely the ability to hold a sofa up for what seemed like an eternity while Bucky was on his hands and knees attempting to coax Mitten out from under it.

Finally, the kitten realised that wherever Bucky went, Steve was going to be there too and a week after bringing him home Mittens jumped up on the sofa beside Steve, rubbing his head against his shoulder. “Hey, looks like someone is finally warming up to you” Bucky joked.

They should have seen Tony and the cat becoming partners in crime a lot sooner.

After numerous occasions of Mittens causing havoc in the tower, one time being chewing on the electrical wires and cutting the electricity in four floors and another being setting off numerous different alarms and driving the security insane, Tony developed a newfound love for the cat.

Three weeks after Mittens arrived, Pepper Potts turned up on Steve and Bucky’s floor with the cat wiggling around in her arms. “Tony put him in Happy’s office again, he almost had a heart attack”

 

* * *

 

Bucky didn’t sleep much. He joked that he’d slept enough in the past seventy years but Steve knew it wasn’t that. Bucky had nightmares, it was expected. Steve still had them, he relived the moment he crashed into the ocean almost every night but that was the worst of it. He dreaded to think what Bucky’s was like, he never bothered asking, and he knew he’d never tell him.

He’d become accustomed to waking up in the middle of night in bed alone, hearing the TV in the next room. Bucky would be watching some rerun of Hell’s Kitchen, he’d tell Steve that he wasn’t tired and that he could go back to bed. Usually he’d sit up with him anyway.

One night he woke up to the same, apart from when he went into the living room he found Bucky fast asleep on the sofa with Mittens curled up against his chest, his head somehow comfortable resting on Bucky’s metal arm.

Steve didn’t have the heart to wake either of them up, laying a blanket over them and going to back to bed.

 

* * *

 

Fury didn’t seem to approve when he arrived at Stark tower to talk to his team and found most of them sat on the floor of Steve and Bucky’s living room floor playing with a kitten.

“The lot of you are supposed to be fully grown adults” He complained, the group shrugged, finding the kitten a lot more interesting for whatever reason Fury was there.

Eventually he gave up, leaving the files on the kitchen counter and walking out without saying anything.

Steve and Bucky didn’t question who had sent the cat toy the next day though.

 

* * *

 

The thing Steve loved the most about Mittens was how happy he made Bucky.

When Steve had finally found him after SHIELD went into the ground he’d been a wreck. He wasn’t the same person he’d been, of course he wasn’t. Steve had been expecting him to put up a fight, but he’d surrendered instead.

He’d thought Steve was going to kill him.

Instead, Steve had hugged him.

He’d barely spoke the first few weeks, Tony had been happy to give them a place to stay. He’d even tried to give Bucky things to do around the tower. Steve gave him a tour of New York, they went back to Brooklyn.

And then Mittens came along.

Steve just sat back and watched them sometimes. Smiling when he saw Bucky attempting to make a sandwich and Mittens would jump up on the counter and try to eat the tuna filling, laughing when he would curl up on Bucky’s lap and he couldn’t bring himself to move him when he had to get up, remembering how sometimes he’d turn up at Bucky’s flat before the war happened and he’d be sat at the door stroking a stray kitten, and even when he wasn’t, it was always a half filled bowl of cat food Bucky hid the key under.

They still had a lot to catch up on. Tony and Sam would drop by and leave DVD box sets at they had to watch regularly. So they’d lie in bed with a still tiny Mittens curled up between them with the TV on.

“This is how I imagined it”

Steve looked over at him, a raised eyebrow. “Imagined what?”

“A happy ending”

 


End file.
